


our future's pretty bleak

by aphwhales



Series: bad things happen bingo [2]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: (Not the focus of the story but it IS horrortale sooo), Alternate Universe - Horrortale (Undertale), Broken Bones, Gen, Head Injury, Horrortale Papyrus (Undertale), Horrortale Sans (Undertale), Major Character Injury, Referenced cannibalism, Starvation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-11
Updated: 2019-06-11
Packaged: 2020-04-24 10:00:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 546
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19171006
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/aphwhales/pseuds/aphwhales
Summary: Papyrus’s hands ache to hold his mandible, but he knows it will be better in the long run if he doesn’t. His entire body shakes as he pulls the ratty comforter tighter over Sans.(Setting a broken bone for BTHB)





	our future's pretty bleak

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Snips & Snails](https://archiveofourown.org/works/17209037) by [popatochisp](https://archiveofourown.org/users/popatochisp/pseuds/popatochisp). 



> PLEASE tell me if missed a tag, horrortale is a pretty dark au so i might have missed something
> 
> tumblr @asriells
> 
> big inspo from @popatochisssp 's first chapter of Snip's and Snails

Minimizing drooling is hard when even wiping his jaw with his sleeve causes pain, but he does it anyway. Sans shouldn’t have to get dirty while he recovers. 

Papyrus’s hands ache to hold his mandible, but he knows it will be better in the long run if he doesn’t. His entire body shakes as he pulls the ratty comforter tighter over Sans. 

He shouldn’t have mentioned Alphys. He really shouldn’t have mentioned Alphys. 

There isn’t anything to eat in the house. Papyrus probably couldn’t eat if he tried, not with his mandible and teeth mangled as they are. Sans, though… 

Papyrus can only hope the gaping hole in his skull won’t kill him. He leans on the counter and takes deep breathes that he doesn’t need. The wound in his skull or the DT…

Or the famine. 

The next time he goes up to Sans’s room, his brother stares at him with one empty eye and one red eye. Papyrus snatches the syringe of DT and nearly drops it in his nervous haste, but Sans sees it anyway. 

“...pap…” 

Papyrus can’t even smile because of his jaw. 

Sans sits up further, or tries to, and eventually settles for reaching for Papyrus with both hands. Papyrus leans down - his head injury, Papyrus assumes, has made Sans quieter and slower in regards to speech. Sans pulls him down gently by the back of his skull, and Papyrus needs to kneel to make the change in height work. 

“...pap… your jaw…” 

Papyrus wordlessly places a hand just under Sans’s head wound. Sans’s removes a hand from Papyrus’s head to feel for himself with a look of alarm, but quickly looks back at Papyrus. 

“...gotta set it… undyne?” 

Papyrus only averts his eyes, and that’s an answer enough for Sans. Drool drips from his mouth.

~

Sans destroys the DT at some point, and Papyrus doesn’t know when. 

Which is okay. It’s fine.  
Sans lets him clean the wound on his head before they go to bed every night, which is probably more for Papyrus’s peace of mind than anything else. But it’s during this nightly ritual that he brings up the continuing issue of his brother’s jaw.

“...lemme set it.” 

Papyrus twitches nervously. He hasn’t eaten in weeks - no one has eaten much, but he hasn’t even eaten the insubstantial dust of other Monsters that many subsist on these days. 

Sans seems to take his silence for a yes, and turns around and stands. “...c’mere...si’down.”

Papyrus sits down, docile, in front of his brother, hands in his lap. Sans looks around the room slowly before picking up one of his pillows. 

“...try not ta kick,” he says, lifting Papyrus’s wrists to place the pillow beneath them, on his femurs. “...but squeeze this… okay? it’s… gonna hurt.” 

Papyrus nods, and Sans takes a deep breath, slowly, and places his big hands on Papyrus’s mandible. His entire skull shoots with pain. 

“be over in a minute. three… two…” 

On one, he snaps Papyrus’s jaw back into place. The pain is blinding, and he thinks _Oh. So Maybe The DT Hurt Sans._

When he comes to, Sans is attempting to read him Fluffy Bunny in his strange, slow voice, stroking a hand over his head to soothe him from the earlier pain.


End file.
